Walking the agricultural crossroad path

Dr K M Bujarbaruah

Indian agriculture today excels in food security, with the exception of two items: oilseeds  and pulses. Thanks to the policy-strategy-technology-farmers’ sweat-combine approach the country has been adopting that made this transformation possible with an expected record production of 376 million tonnes of food grain in 2025–26, an enviable growth story worldwide. However, the region’s and country’s agriculture faces the emerging challenge of feeding an additional 20-22 billion people by 2047, placing it at a crossroads surrounded by four roads. 

i) On the back is the road to Sujalam-Sufalam-Mayaji-Sitalam agriculture, and to traverse this path, we have two options – Natural Farming (NF) and Organic Farming (OF). While the State of Assam has been pursuing organic farming for quite a few years now, the Northeast, apart from Sikkim, has not yet emerged as an ‘organic by design’ region which needs to be pursued through a foolproof master plan to map and categorise different landmasses, assess the input needs, promote organic fertiliser/pesticide factories, backstop the plan with artificial intelligence technologies and link up the producers-harvesters-processors-packagers/branders to digital and other markets.   Similarly for NF, the region as a whole needs to map the natural farming areas; calculate bio-input needs; study the inter- and intra-interactions of the ecosystem habitat, productivity, soil organic carbon content and carbon sequestration pattern and its trading as an additional source of farm income, preferably through PhD students. While emphasis on NF is largely on crops, the state needs also to explore animal-based NF like poultry, piggery, sheep and goat and bee farming.  Through OF and NF, the region can drive the Evergreen Revolution engine and thus lead the region to a ‘bio-wealth-based bio-happiness’ region.

ii) The road in front of the roundel is for Gen-G/techno-savvy agriculture, which is likely to play a significant role as we progress, particularly due to the technological alternatives that have already been introduced and those that are set to emerge, including advanced data-driven Internet of Things robotics and artificial intelligence-backed science in agriculture, as well as omics technologies like genome editing using molecular scissors such as CRISPR genes. Recent advances in speed breeding technology shall reduce the generation interval in developing disease- and climate-stress-friendly crop varieties for Gen-G agriculture. Work on microbiome research is likely to provide stress-countering genes in the immediate and foreseeable future. Use of precision farming packages using satellite and other data shall save resources, time and space for engineering newer cropping sequences and cropping intensity. Farm-based circular economy models, which convert farm waste into energy and wealth, have created opportunities for increased farm income. through farm-based circular economy (farm waste to energy and wealth) models. In short, the current situation is the time to use all the disruptive technologies in agriculture besides aeroponic (soil-less potatoes) and aquaponic farming.  The alarming concern, however, is that most of the AI in agricultural use is the output from non-farm scientists. There is, therefore, an urgent need for the government to support an all-inclusive AI division in both the agricultural and veterinary & fisheries universities in the state. Similarly, government support in establishing state-of-the-art Agri-Logistics and Clean Plant Programme (both supported by the GoI) centres will open up immeasurable opportunities for young agri-preneurs.  

iii) The road on the left of the roundel is the road to walk through the current-day agricultural practices. Despite the developments and the government schemes for support to the sector, some farmers continue to experience support ‘have nots’ ranging from climate-resilient varieties/packages, irrigation scheduling, high-quality seed and planting materials, and eroded soil to the problem of ‘plenty’ in production sites that fetches a lower price and the problem of ‘scanty’ at consumption sites, especially in the cities, due to the factors well known. Convergence of all agricultural schemes shall be of greater public interest. Encompassing irrigation with agriculture in the new ministry is definitely a step in that direction. Hopefully the canvas will still be bigger so as to plug the non-plugged problematic areas mentioned.

iv) The road on the right is the one to make the state and region agriculturally Atmanirbhar by a special thrust on its niche area crops right from area expansion with commensurate production enhancement, starting with GI-tagged ones, to creating market incentives for niche crops, incentivising, if necessary, the farmers and other stakeholders.  The region must plan for complementary and speciality agriculture to expand its food basket for trade, ideally through collaboration with the DoNER Ministry. This road is also for skilling the unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled actors besides market intelligence-based trade planning.

v) At the centre of the roundel lie agricultural education, research and extension. Teaching and research conducted in a ‘business as usual’ manner are no longer sufficient in today’s context; we need to develop human resources that are prepared in science, industry, service, society, and self to skilfully transform the sector by combining ‘know-how’ with both current and future ‘do-how’ techniques.  Another strength of the universities is their PhD students, who can be strategically grouped into basic, strategic, translational, and applied research. The universities’ PhD students can be strategically grouped into categories of basic, strategic, translational, and applied research.  The government may consider a research grant of Rs 3-5 crore to both universities per annum to deliver outcome-orientated research outputs for the public good in the form of patents/commercialised technologies.

In summary, this is an ideal moment to establish Assam and NER agriculture and allied sectors as Agriculture/Animal Source Food (ASF) sources and technology-business hubs that integrate both traditional and frontier sciences, thereby significantly contributing to the country’s ASF basket for global trade and commerce and playing a crucial role in achieving the Viksit Bharat and SDG goals, while also benefiting from the ‘Act East’ policy, which will support the growth of both the nation’s and state’s GDP, with the region’s ASF serving as a key driver of this growth.

(The author is a former VC, AAU, and Dy DG, ICAR, New Delhi.)